What did you do to unwind last weekend, before another coma-inducing week of work beckoned?

Some gardening? A round of golf? Possibly a spot of DIY (even if curtain-hanging is about as about as relaxing as root canal treatment?)

Or maybe you went swimming with sharks. A bit like drinking with Irishmen, this is not an experience for the faint-hearted. But it is one of many activities to calm the shattered nerves of world rallying's elite the weekend before Rally Australia, where the sharks will certainly be gathering as far as Richard Burns is concerned.

It must be tough to travel half way across the world in the sharp end of a Jumbo jet, constantly having to choose between Chablis and Chateauneuf du Pape with only a starstruck blonde stewardess for company. No wonder they were looking stressed when they arrived.

Yet it's amazing how half an hour in a shark tank puts everything into perspective. At least that's what Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen concluded as he emerged, teeth chattering, from the frozen depths. "It's lucky that I'm skinny," he pointed out. "I probably don't look very appetising." Carlos Sainz's co-driver Marc Marti joined him in this little escapade, muttering nervously about how Jaws was only a film and nothing like that ever happens in real life.

Speaking of violence, Burns had been to see the West Coast Eagles versus Fremantle Dockers Aussie Rules football game the evening before.

To the uninitiated, the scene on the pitch looks uncannily like central Glasgow on a Friday night. There are no apparent rules, a fair amount of blood, and a constant soundtrack of incomprehensible verbal abuse. But Richard seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it reminded him of his local back home in Reading.

Both of them enjoy heavy artillery, although they were disappointed to learn that none of the prescribed targets were alive or furry. Phil won the clay pigeon shoot, while 'Beef' blasted the hell out of a poor defenceless cardboard cut-out.

But not every driver chooses gung-ho action when it comes to recreation. Subaru's four-time World Champion Tommi Makinen says that he spent a couple of days at home before going to Australia just driving his combine harvester.

Apparently, it's "good fun." Just goes to show that you can take the man out of Finland, but it's somewhat harder to take Finland out of the man.

This weekend's tenth round of the 2003 World Rally Championship takes crews to the fast stages around the Western Australia capital, Perth.

Unbeaten here for the past three years, Peugeot will be looking for a big points haul to add to its current score with a view to improving its chances of finishing the year as World Champions for the fourth consecutive campaign.

Burns was winner of this event in 1999 and has been second overall on two occasions since, and with only five rounds of the 2003 calendar remaining, Peugeot and Burns continue to lead both the provisional Manufacturers' and Drivers' title chases.

Early August's visit to Rally Finland proved less fruitful than Peugeot had hoped, however, and the situation at the top of both championship leaderboards has narrowed significantly.

The French carmaker still leads with a score of 101 points, but sister-company Citroen's total is now 97, while Ford and Subaru trail a little further behind with 60 points apiece.

On the drivers' front, Burns, who came third in Finland, is also still in front with a five-point cushion over Carlos Sainz, while Marcus Grönholm and Petter Solberg are 11 points down, and Sébastien Loeb and Markko Martin a further point adrift.

With each win worth ten points, and with two gravel events (Australia and Great Britain) and three asphalt rounds (Italy, Corsica and Spain) still to come, the title fight is still a long way from finished...